View Full Version : 2014 A6 TDI Wheel Bearing?
AudiWake
08-28-2020, 07:33 AM
I have a small vibration and general winding noise that I feel and notice at about 60 to 80mph. I am not sure which corner of the car it is. I thought well it needs tires anyway and I had got new rims, so I did that. It helped but didn't fix it. The brake pad light came on, so I ordered brakes and rotors I plan on doing them this weekend. I am hoping for warped rotors, but I am having my doubts that is going to fix the issue. I am pretty sure it is a wheel bearing or bearings. From my research, I find the hub and bearing assemblies for the rear only. Are the rear and front hub and bearing assemblies the same? I don't want to mess with removing and pressing to save time. I am looking at buying the hub and bearing assembly from rock auto, specifically MOOG 512598. I am thinking of using a heat gun after a drive on all the bearings to determine which one is bad. Any tips tricks or guidance would be appreciated. Thanks!
I should have known when buying my car for 6k less than the rest of the market it wouldn't have all the normal maintenance things handled.
Premature wheel bearing failure is fairly common on this generation A6. All wheel bearings will require replacement in time, on any make or model, but by "premature" I mean failure before 100k miles or so. I had to have two (2) replaced at under 50k miles.
All four (4) corners take the same bearing/part. It seems that front bearings tend to fail before rears. Some say that you can detect which bearing is bad by driving on a road with no traffic, getting up to at least 45 mph and carefully weaving left & right. If you notice noise/grinding when turning right, it's the left bearing; and vice versa. NOTE: This is not the most scientific or reliable testing method. More reliable is being able to lift the car, put in in gear, give it gas to drive the wheels, then listen with chassis ears. Not the simplest or easiest thing for the typical owner to do.
AudiWake
08-28-2020, 08:08 AM
Premature wheel bearing failure is fairly common on this generation A6. All wheel bearings will require replacement in time, on any make or model, but by "premature" I mean failure before 100k miles or so. I had to have two (2) replaced at under 50k miles.
All four (4) corners take the same bearing/part. It seems that front bearings tend to fail before rears. Some say that you can detect which bearing is bad by driving on a road with no traffic, getting up to at least 45 mph and carefully weaving left & right. If you notice noise/grinding when turning right, it's the left bearing; and vice versa. NOTE: This is not the most scientific or reliable testing method. More reliable is being able to lift the car, put in in gear, give it gas to drive the wheels, then listen with chassis ears. Not the simplest or easiest thing for the typical owner to do.
Is the hub the same for all 4? I want to purchase the hub and bearing assembly together to save time. Thanks for the reply.
Audibot
08-28-2020, 08:14 AM
When you got new wheels and tires, did they road force balance them? I have found spin balancing the wheels has left me with vibrations that have gone away with road force balance. The 60-80 mph vibration is typical for unbalanced/improperly balanced wheels.
AudiWake
08-28-2020, 08:26 AM
When you got new wheels and tires, did they road force balance them? I have found spin balancing the wheels has left me with vibrations that have gone away with road force balance. The 60-80 mph vibration is typical for unbalanced/improperly balanced wheels.
No. I will give that a try after I do the brakes this weekend. Thanks for the reply.
Is the hub the same for all 4? I want to purchase the hub and bearing assembly together to save time. Thanks for the reply.
Same hub & bearing assembly at all four corners. Some replace only the bearing, reusing the hub, as that approach is lower cost---but it's a bit more complicated, as you have to press-out the bad bearing from the hub then press-in the new bearing.
Good luck.